Day 4 Setback - Nightime Pain after exercise - HELP

Hi Everyone,
I am a little discouraged, I read Dr Sarno's book a week ago a day after being admitted to the emergency room with terrible back and leg pain all the way to my feet.

I knew that this was the answer to my pain. I started feeling better almost immediately, thinking positively and reassuring myself I was ok.

4 days ago I started the SEP, journaling and doing the exercises.

I was feeling so great I decided to go swimming on the weekend, I did a couple of lengths and didn't feel any pain, just a little right at the end of the day but woke up ok and I decided to go back to the pool yesterday as well where I did 5 lengths. I had no pain during or after, I even went for a nice lunch and sat down for 30mins straight which was unheard of for me.

But at the end of the day the pain started creeping in just slightly, pain was a tad higher than the day before but nothing to be concerned about, I re read the 12 reminders and tried to sleep but couldn't get to sleep, the pain started increasing ever so slightly through the night and by 4am it was almost unbearable!! I had to take a painkiller and even then I could not control the pain.

So I'm at a crossroads and I don't know what to do, I don't know if I should take it easy for a couple of days and start again slowly or if I should push through the pain!

Can any of you share your thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
LF

 

I'm sure someone has been in the same situation, care to comment?
Thanks

 

Hi there. I am also relatively new to the program and have had a similar experience. When I was about a week or so in my back flaired up in the middle of the night and I literally couldn't move when I woke up. I was having such bad muscle spasms I had to wait a couple of hours before I could go to work. I truly believe that it was my subconscious fighting back since I am trying to uncover and acknowledge my repressed emotions. I tried my best to just laugh about it and eventually got to work and ignored it as much as possible knowing that the spasms would calm down within a day or so. Which they did.

I also seem to have flair ups when I exercise too. Today for example I am having shooting pains down my leg and I have worked out every day since Saturday. I decided to really think about what is bothering me and focus on that and do some journaling. Then some meditation. I will give myself a break today. I would try that if I were you. You know it's not the swimming that hurt you. There is something lurking in your mind that is bothering you. Do some free writing and see what pops up. Be kind to yourself today and wait a couple of days before you swim again.

You sound like me when it comes to working out. It probably makes you really mad when the pain interferes doesn't it? I am trying not to beat myself up too much and take a little break for a day or so.

Let's check in after a couple days and see how we feel.

 

Hi Cat Lady
Thanks for your comment, it is definitely good to hear that I'm are not alone on this, I try hard to think what could be lurking but sometimes the pain is so bad I can't even concentrate to do some journaling.
I actually took the day off yesterday and today I'm feeling much better, but I didn't exercise, I will do what you say and maybe wait a couple of days to go to the pool again.

But you are right it makes me really mad and I think the worse, I guess I need to learn to be more racional at those times and know that I'm not possibly doing any structural damage by swimming, specially when I get no pain while doing it but many hours after!

Quick question if you don't mind, you mentioned that you now have some shooting pains down your leg, are you taking anything for those pains?

Thanks again!

 

Now I am not taking anything for the pain. I was taking an anti inflammatory for years because I have arthritis in my knees. I actually have a partial knee replacement. You can hear the crunching in my knees. I stopped those because it was raising my blood pressure but I was just substituting ibuprofen which did no good either.

My doctor said I should not be taking that many anti inflammatory medications because it's not good for the kidneys. So I stopped everything. Except for when I couldn't move that day. I had to take ibuprofen so I could go to work. But on a daily basis I now take no pain meds. Piriformis stretches do help and I do those every day.

 

Yes I used to take anti inflammatory drugs all the time, but it was a real shock for me to find out from Dr Sarnos's book that "no one has ever demonstrated the existence of an inflammatory process in any back pain syndrome"... Talk about doing everything wrong!